Preventive medication adherence in African American and Caucasian headache patients

To examine race-related differences in adherence to preventive medication agents in headache patients and identify factors predictive of medication adherence in Caucasian and African American headache patients.

Using a longitudinal naturalistic study design, data from 77 Caucasian and 32 African American headache patients were collected through (1) 30-day daily diaries that assessed medication adherence, headache frequency, and headache episode severity; (2) self-administered surveys that assessed headache management self-efficacy; and (3) telephone-administered psychiatric interviews that yielded psychiatric diagnoses. Using daily diary adherence data, patients' adherence to preventive agents was dichotomized as "Inconsistent" (ie, adhered fewer than 80% of days) or "Consistent" (ie, adhered ≥ 80% of days during the past month).

The proportion of adherent African American patients (69%) did not differ significantly from the proportion of adherent Caucasian patients (82%). Exploratory univariate logistic regression analyses found that preventive medication adherence levels of 80% or less were associated with being diagnosed with major depressive disorder and lower levels of headache management self-efficacy.

Future research should test if interventions that reduce depressive symptoms and increase patients' levels of headache management self-efficacy can produce concomitant increases in adherence to preventive headache agents.